Hear ASHWYN’s Shimmery Debut EP ‘Skar’  

We recently caught up with California-born and Bengaluru-raised guitarist-producer and singer-songwriter Ashwin Sriram aka ASHWYN to talk to him about his five-track debut EP, Skar. The artist discussed the meaning of the songs on the record, the musicians he worked with as well as what he has in store next.  

What led to the EP being put together? 

It all started back in Bangalore when I was with my family, and I needed an outlet for the heavy emotions that most of us felt when we were cooped up in our houses during the pandemic’s peak. I went through my hard drive and started opening up old projects and creating new ideas, so this EP is a blend of my old and new sounds. I realized many of the songs had a similar feel and key signature, and it made sense to have them put together as an EP. It was also my final year at Berklee, and I wanted to do something bigger than a single for my capstone project. I had always wanted to do something bigger than a single. It didn’t quite captivate me, and a lot of my friends and family could see I was getting burnt out because it felt too fast for me. I could finally breathe, develop a concept and focus on music. 

After I got the initial ideas down, the next step was selecting the right tracks, finishing the lyric-writing, and deciding on the featured artists. For the lyrics, I got help from my two good friends, Rehaan and Prithvi Prajosh, and for the featured artists, I ended up getting in contact with two singers in California, Natalie and Alyssa, through a producer called James Littier on a Facebook group. I ended up loving the demos they created, and we got the help of James to get the vocals recorded and sent remotely. In parallel to that, I worked with a co-producer, Jonathan Pfarr, a recording engineer for Kanye West, to take the songs to the next level. Everything came together pretty fast, and it was exciting building a finished product with such a big team. This EP was conceptualized to be like a story sonically; it starts off quite intense and ends with an ethereal touch. It was meant to be a transitional EP, with the last song opening more doors for me sonically and giving me a chance to show a more vulnerable side. 

What can you tell me about the songs on the EP? 

The title Skar was a word I discovered back in high school, which meant ‘pure’ in Swedish. Later on, when I started to decide on a name for the EP, I found out Skar had a lot of different meanings and was also part of the word ‘samskara,’ a term in Sanskrit which refers to the mental impressions, recollections, or psychological imprints that define a human being. I found all of this super fascinating and to be very honest, I also just really loved how the word sounded.  

The first track is the introduction to the EP. Inspired by Hans Zimmer and Pink Floyd, I wanted to create a piece of music demonstrating my strength as a guitar player and composer. ‘Wide Awake’ intentionally transitions from the intro to create a continuous vibe as a tribute to the Dark Side of The Moon. This track features the vocalist Alyssa ‘vrchvic’ who brings fresh energy with her vocal ad-libs. The track is about ego dissolution and the difficulties one faces through that path. ‘Feelings of Yesterday’ is the only song from the EP that’s already been released. The song was written for an online art exhibition during the pandemic to showcase artists’ emotions during the lockdown in 2020.  

‘Pink Skies’ is a collaboration with Natalie, a singer-songwriter from California. The theme for this song was nostalgia, and the lyrics are about a romantic getaway. The title track is sonically quite different from the rest. It’s a track about letting go and finding true love. 

What can you tell me about the production process for the EP? 

The recording process was relatively straightforward as I was fortunate enough to do a lot of the vocal recording in the Berklee studios. Having a lot of people backing me was super important for this EP because I was losing my mind on small corrections, constantly obsessing over how to make it better. Working with Jonathan was amazing, and his sound design was on another level, especially with the synths in Skar. I had the final mixes done by BigZ, who does the mixing and mastering for all my tracks, and I’m forever grateful that he stuck with me through all the revisions I requested. It felt cathartic to have ideas I made years ago become so polished and professional sounding. I enjoyed the process, and I think that for the first time I just had fun without expecting anything or worrying about whether it would be a success. Since it was an EP, I had no intention of charting or going viral on social media; I just wanted to create something of substance.  

What promotional plans do you have for the EP?  

My friends and I from Emerson did a complete photo and video shoot at the venue we met at for the first time. It was a seven-hour shoot, and in the last hour, we got the crazy idea of shooting in a corridor with a light shining through a white backdrop behind the doorway creating a super ethereal vibe. We did a bunch of different shots and plan on releasing a few music videos for ‘Wide Awake,’ ‘Skar,’ and the intro track.   

What’s next? 

I’ve been so focused on this project that it’s been hard to think about what’s next, but I have already started working on my next batch of music with a different sound. In a lot of ways, this EP was meant to be a transitional EP, with the last song opening more doors for me sonically. I have a bunch of singles and collaborations coming soon with a lot of talented artists, which will get released in 2023. 

Stream ‘Skar’ on Spotify below and on other platforms.